The Chapel in Wadsworth

As believers, how we respond to God's mercy and goodness matters profoundly. Gratitude begins with receiving God's goodness, and returning to Jesus' feet to express our gratitude through praise. We can cultivate gratitude by taking time to notice where we have seen God's goodness in each day.

Believers are meant for the glory of God but are simultaneously sent into the "valley" of a broken, fallen world. While we naturally desire to stay in moments of spiritual mountaintop experiences, true discipleship involves following Jesus into challenging spaces to reflect his glory to others. We are called to trust in Christ's worthiness and stay strong in our faithfulness through daily obedienc...

As we embrace placing our lives under the authority of Christ, we recognize it requires a daily commitment to denying our flesh and taking up the cross, prioritizing God's purposes over personal desires. Ultimately, the cross must precede the crown, and we are called to follow Jesus in faithful obedience for the joy that is set before us in an eternity with our Savior.

Our obedience is fueled by Christ's abundance. While the disciples were tasked with a seemingly impossible mission without material provisions, they learned that true provision for all needs—whether spiritual or physical—is found solely in dependence upon Jesus.

Jesus invites everyone into a relationship defined by faith, proving his power over the most broken circumstances. We are encouraged to persevere in our trust in Christ, recognizing that this life is our unique opportunity to testify to his faithfulness, even when we must wait for his timing.

We are called to trust Christ in difficult circumstances especially knowing the reality that spiritual warfare exists. The evil one is ultimately a defeated enemy. As Jesus helps us to overcome brokenness, he also calls us to share of his faithfulness with those all around us.

Recognizing the magnitude of one's own sin and the depth of forgiveness received is essential to growing a genuine, deep love for Christ. As Jesus followers, are we living with consistent posture of repentance and trust? Before we judge others, do we recognize our own need for a forgiveness and a Savior?

When our circumstances do not align with our hopes or understanding of God's plans, it is necessary to take these struggles directly to Jesus and remain anchored in truth. Ultimately, we are called to submit to God's sovereign authority and trust his eternal purposes, even when we cannot see the immediate reason for our suffering or unmet desires.

We as Jesus followers are called to move beyond simply calling Jesus "Lord" and instead live a life of active, obedient faith. Through Luke 6, we see that true spiritual growth and stability come from the challenging, often invisible work of "digging deep" into a relationship with Christ through spiritual disciplines, rather than just admiring His teachings from afar.

Followers of Jesus are called to embody a radical, sacrificial love that extends even to their enemies, reflecting the merciful heart of God rather than worldly reciprocity. We are encouraged to move past judgmental attitudes by performing a personal heart check, acknowledging our own need for grace, and taking our shortcomings to the cross for forgiveness.

Jesus commands His followers to love our enemies, teaching that a true follower of Christ should reflect the Father's mercy rather than simply responding in anger or retaliation to the world's brokenness. We are called to practice intentional, active love through prayer and mercy, trusting that these actions demonstrate their identity as children of the Most High.

In Luke 6, we find Jesus is the founder of a new community and the authority in a new, transformative law. We have a compassionate call as disciples to reject worldly values in favor of humble dependence on God.

While the Pharisees turned the Sabbath into a burden of strict rules and missed its original purpose, Jesus reclaimed it. We are called to view the Sabbath not as a rule, but as a life giving pattern found in Christ that requires ceasing our own striving to actively enjoy God.

In Luke 5:12–26, we see an intentional outline of Jesus’s compassion, confrontation, and power shown in the healing of two people. Jesus uses His divine power to address humanity's deepest problem; sin and the need for forgiveness; rather than just fixing surface-level, presenting problems.

As we considered Luke's account of Jesus calling His first disciples, we see a contrast between the safety of the shore with the vulnerability of the deep water. Jesus purposefully confronts Peter's self-sufficiency to show him to take a step of faith. Believers are called to surrender self-sufficiency and security, and fully commit to following Christ who gives abundant life now and for eternity.

This Sunday we dove into Luke 4:31-44, and recognized Jesus' absolute authority over evil as demonstrated through his miraculous healings. These miracles serve as signs of Christ's power over the effects of sin and death, while cautioning that the ultimate purpose of Jesus's mission was to offer access to the Father through the proclamation of the Gospel rather than just temporary physical healing...

We considered the concept of becoming a "house of prayer" as defined in Mark 11, and emphasized that believers carry both the authority of Jesus and the intimacy with God. In what ways are we using prayer as a tool to see God's kingdom break out into our city?

As we looked at Ephesians 4, we focused on the Ministry & Mission environment of our Discipleship Pathway, and zoomed in on the Ministry side. We considered how believers can participate with the Holy Spirit to build up the church. Just as Jesus received authority from God to give the ultimate gift of His "body" (the church) to the world, individual believers have also received unique gifts meant...

We considered that every believer is part of a "royal priesthood" called to both an inward-facing role of worshiping God and an outward-facing role of sharing the Gospel. As the church body, we are called to align our earthly priorities with the realities of heaven through local and global mission.

Humanity is aching for a kind of life it cannot manufacture on it's own. The future re-creation that humanity longs for has broken into the present through Jesus. We can't do the Lord's work without the Lord's way. His way is empowered by the Holy Spirit. We, the church, are the Spirit filled, Heavenly Humanity on Earth.

This week we considered that God’s primary mission is recreation of the world through Jesus. The church is called to be a "new humanity" empowered by the Holy Spirit. We have a personal invitation to allow God into the "wastelands" of their own lives—such as broken habits or stagnant desires—to begin His recreative work from the inside out, through the Spirit.

This week we answer the question for our church; how do we as the church grow as followers of Christ in the work that the Lord is doing here in Wadsworth? To understand this, we are breaking it down into four environments, or spaces we participate with God in our discipleship to Jesus.

As we look at the conclusion of the Gospel of Luke, we see that the Resurrection of Jesus is a physical reality that transforms fear and doubt into great joy. Encountering the living Jesus provides an objective anchor and "peace" in an unsettling, rapidly changing world. This peace is not merely as the absence of conflict, but the restoration of all things to God's original design. Are we living u...

Looking at the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, we considered how God nourishes and sustains the faith of believers through both objective truth and personal experiences. Though Jesus initially hid his identity to show that faith must first be anchored in the "objective reality" of the Scriptures rather than just emotions or physical sight. By sharing the scriptures and later breaking bread, Jesus demon...

As we celebrated the Resurrection, we considered the initial lack of expectation for a miracle from the people closest to Jesus. How often does our own brokenness blind us from God's power? By faith in Jesus, we are saved. The gospel calls for a complete swap out of one's life for Christ’s and for us to believe in the promise that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life.